Semi-Farcical

'While the Patient Slept'

While the Patient Slept

Cast: Aline MacMahon, Guy Kibbee

USDVD release date: 3 May 2012

This is a fast B mystery starring long-faced character actress Aline McMahon as Mignon Eberhart’s detective Nurse Keating (later played by knockout Ann Sheridan in a couple of 1940s movies) and roly-poly Guy Kibbee as the police detective who’s sweet on her insults. Nurse Keating is minding a rich old duffer in a coma when one of the grasping relatives shoots the man’s ne’er-do-well son. Who could it be? And what’s the secret of the green elephant on the mantel? A very typical entertainment of its era, this mixes corpses and snappy byplay with many bits of business. It adds up to a pleasant, semi-farcical, and finally forgettable time-passer.

While the Patient Slept

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Michael Barrett is a San Antonio-based freelance writer who tries not to leave the house. He has degrees from Trinity University in San Antonio and University of California at Davis. He watches one film a day. In addition to his features and reviews on PopMatters, see also his PopMatters column, Canon Fodder. Since the early '90s he has written a monthly video column for the San Antonio Express-News, and his national publications include Library Journal and the Chicago-based Nostalgia Digest.